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Nykän
Setting Nykän is spoken mainly by Näcken, a elfic race from Serdes world. Näcken are marine elfs, part of one of the three elfic groups: Liv, with Lyenn (dark elves of the forest) and Ilse (elves of islands). Nykän was developed by me, mostly based on Swedish, Japanese and Portuguese. Phonology Letters are listed on Nykän alphabetical order. A a – al (some) – au ɐ – marvan (sea creature) - maɾwɐɴ I i – vilit (to like - adjective) – wilit y – lin (camp) - lyɴ Ä ɛ - näly (sense) - nɛli e – kän (people) – ɕeɴ (Ä is only pronounced as ‘e’ before N) U u - auk (to come) - auk E e - me (eye) - me Y i - pavly (cake) - pauli / pavli O ɒ - to (that, and, together, with) - tɒ Ö o - öutt (autumn) - out B b - bik (kid, child) - biq / bik J dʑ - jad (fashion) - dʑad i - jag (I) - iaː L l – äljon (place) – ɛliɒn u – endäl (old) - eɴdɛu V v - anv (winter) - ɐɴv u - vet (you - plural) - uet w - vin (wind) - wyɴ K k - akak (to dawn) - akaq ɕ - kälui (beach) – ɕɛlui (K is only pronounced as ‘ɕ’ before Ä) q – vik (mirror) – wiq (K is only pronounced as ‘q’ on word end) D d - dok (to go) - dɒq F f – farg (stone) – faɾ ː - divaf (to shout) - divaː H h – hind (to see) G g - galy (school) - gali ː - benjag (study - noun) - beniaː ŋ – räng (station) - rɛŋ (G is only pronounced as ‘ŋ’ after N, on word end) N n – näj (not) – nɛi ɴ - flin (far) - flyɴ M m - ima (now) - ima P p - pari (city) - paɾi R ɾ - rän (heart) - ɾeɴ S s - siol - syɒu T t - toi (bird) - tɒi Ċ / CH tɕ - ċing / ching (spirit) - tɕyŋ W w - kwaein (fear) - kwaeiɴ Phonotactics Basic Grammar Verbs Nykän verbs have 4 moods (Infinitive, Indicative, Conclusive and Sensitive) and 4 tenses (Past, Present / Future, Subjunctive and Objective). Infinitive equals English Infinitive. Indicative equals English Indicative. Conclusive is similar to Japanese Conjunctive. Sensitive have no English similar. Past equals Japanese Perfective. Present / Future equals Japanese Formal. Subjunctive is similar to Conditional and Subjunctive mood. Objective is similar to Japanese 'koto' nominalization. Infinitive Mood ''Possible endings: NG, K, T, D, F Söng – To Sing Ex: Söng är jags riv. To sing is my life. ''Indicative Mood It's used for statements. NG: -g K: you do nothing T: -t +ċ/ch D: -d +j F: -f Stem: Sön- Past Tense ''+i Söni Hen söni at jörd pähi. He sung the entire night yesterday. ''Present / Future Tense Present and future can be shown by the phrase. +er / är Söner Het söner Gobers eski. She’ll sing at Gober’s house. Ima het söner hets eski. Now she sings at her house. Conclusive Mood It's used to change the phrase function of a verb. NG: -ng +i Vowel+K: -k Cons+K: -k +e T: -t D: +e F: +a Stem: Söi Söivund. Could you sing, please? Subjunctive Tense It's used both for conditions and hypothesis. +k Söik Vu petik jag, jag söik. If you paid me, I would sing. Objective Tense It's used to change verbs into objects. +g Söig Kleni hen söig linker. He likes to sing in the park. Sensitive Mood It's used for feelings and sensations. NG: -g +ja Vowel+K: +ja Cons+K: -k +ja T: +enja D: +anja F: -f +vja Sönja An hi vu sönja. You may feel like singing any day. Noun Cases Noun cases are very important to Nykän language. They show the relation one noun has to another. Mänd – museum En Indefinite article. En mänd – A museum -en Definite article. Mänden – The museum -i Something in which the other thing is inside, place. Ars piken är mändi. – The art works are on the museum. -s Genitive. The word that receives the genitive case is the ‘owner’. Mänds piken är lyndv. – The works of the museum are beautiful. pä- Before or behind. Pämändi en äimo är. – There is a park behind the museum. lö- After or front. Lömändi jag är. – I’m in the front of the museum. -esk To, towards, direction. Jag mändesk dokär. – I’m going to the museum. -ed Method. Mänds juked versen är Mans Palei. – According to museum information, the book is at Man’s Library. Note: Man here is not used as man (male human). Order to the cases: En pä/löNOUNen-esk-ed-i-s Note: pä- and lö- are rarely used as front or behind. It’s most used the genitive case on the noun and the nouns for front and behind, respectively pänan ''(thing at front) and ''lönan (thing at behind). There’s an ancient case as well: Et/-et. It was used on ancient Nykän, the same way as on Live, so to indicate plural form. It’s not used anymore, and now it’s actually wrong, but it remains on plural pronouns (jag and jet, vu and vet). Personal Pronouns Personal pronouns can receive the genitive case. Hen and het are, other than only being pronouns, indicators of gender on strict situations: Bikhen = kid-he = boy Bikhet = kid-she = girl Sentence Structure Nykän is a SVO language. Question phrases always end with a 'da'. Dictionary Example text Format: Nykän phrase Literal meaning Translation Vus lab är nan da? You-genitive name is what question? What is your name? Nanesk doker da? What-to go question? Where are you going? Nanesk dokja da? What-to go-feel question? Where do you feel like going? / Where do you want to go? Iker nan da? Do what question? What are you doing? Nankän är näj. Nanen är näj. What-person is not. What-one is not. There is nobody. There is nothing. En hi jag ärk räme. A day I would-be famous. Someday I'll be famous. Jags nanen vilit janbeg är klinty. I-genitive what-one like animal is cat. My favourite animal is cat. Jag är näj vau bikhen, näj ii bikhen. I am not bad kid-he, not good kid-he. I'm not a bad boy, nor a good boy. Är vilit bedeg och. Be like drink-objective tea. I like to drink tea. Ljoijetdo vers. Read-we-go book. Let's go read a book. Dake blinivu. Just smile-you. Just smile. Syn kän är Lyn da? This person is Lyn question? Is this person Lyn? Hen är dilonaidapli. He is ten-nine-year. He is nineteen years old. Jag doker incfans köri. I go Friday-genitive afternoon. I'm going in Friday afternoon. Structure Analysis Maivu vus söwe. maiwu vus sowe Tell-you you-genitive wish. Tell me your wish. Structure analysis: conclusive mood with a noun can be used for imperative. In this phrase, 'maivu' is the verb and 'vus söwe' is the direct object. 'Söwe' is wish (noun). 'Mang' is to tell (verb). Maikäns söwe. maiɕeɴs sowe Tell-person-genitive wish. The wish of the person who tells. / The wish of the telling person. Structure analysis: conclusive mood with a noun can also be used for saying what the noun does. That way, 'maikän' becomes a noun. Only nouns can receive noun cases, as well. Maikän söwaner. maiɕeɴ sowaneɾ Tell-person wish. The person who tells wishes. / The telling person wishes. Structure Analysis: same use of conclusive mood of the phrase above. On this phrase, 'maikän' is the subject and 'söwaner' is the verb. 'Söwang' is to wish (verb) Vu mai, söwaner. vu mai, sowaneɾ You tell, wish. You are telling and wishing. Structure analysis: isolated conclusive mood is used for two or more verbs on a phrase, with no relation to one another. In this case, it's assumed the conclusive verb is on same tense and mood of the last verb of the phrase. 'Vu' is the subject to both verbs, so it appears before 'mai'. It's not required to repeat it before 'söwaner'. In this phrase, 'vu' is the subject and both 'mai' and 'söwaner' act as verbs. Vu mani söwanig nan to. vu mani sowanig naɴ tɒ You told wish what that. You told me what you wish. / You told me what you wished. Structure analysis: objective tense is used to make a verb into a object while still being a verb (opposite to conclusive mood, that changes the verb into a noun). In this phrase, 'vu' is the subject, 'mani' is the verb and 'söwanig nan to' is the indirect (because of the 'to' particle) object. Imanani är. imanani eɾ Now-what-in is. I'm here. Structure analysis: 'imanan' is used for 'here', 'the place of now'. A regular nykän speaker can easily understand this phrase, even if there's no subject. Imanan är. imanan eɾ Now-what is. It's here. Structure analysis: as above, 'imanan' is used for 'here'. The difference lies on the '-i'. On the sentence above, it indicates that 'here' is the place where the verb 'är' happens. On this sentence, 'imanan' acts as the subject. Ärvune ima maru hone. Be-you-have now really honest. You have to be really honest now. / You really have to be honest now. Structure analysis: 'ne' is used to intensify the meaning and get a 'have to' connotation to the verb. Jag näj yonjer nan. I not care thing. I don't care about anything. Category:Languages